If you walked into Mechanics Hall yesterday, you would have never guessed it was about to host its 400th professional boxing fight card. Normally the stage for elite symphonies and orchestras, the classical architecture and the enveloping U.S. history memorabilia—Teddy Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and a number of U.S. icons spoke here—was this time the site of fistic fury.

Rodriguez worked his jab throughout the first round and began putting combinations together in round two. Midway through the second round, Rodriguez landed a powerful right hand body shot on Traietti. Traietti sustained the punch and went on to finish the round.

After the second round had completed, Traietti’s corner stopped the bout as he was unable to come off of his stool for round three. He was in tremendous pain and having trouble breathing. It appeared initially that Rodriguez may have broken his ribs. With this being the case, Traietti headed to the hospital to have it evaluated.

Rodriguez said afterwards, “It was a right hand to the body at about a minute into the last round. I remember him acting a little bit but he was good at playing it off, but I know when I hit someone hard to the body, they are feeling it. I certainly did feel it when I hit him there, and like I said, he is a tough guy and was able to finish the round at least.”

The Dominican born Rodriguez, the current WBC USNBC super middleweight title holder, has a decorated career since he started boxing in 2001 and quickly became one of the most sought after amateurs in the United States, with an (84-9) record including the gold medal in the 2005 USA Boxing National Championships & 2006 U.S. National Golden Gloves Championships, until his professional debut in 2008.

Since then he has gone on and appeared twice on Showtime’s “ShoBox” series and most recently in the co-feature of ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights back in January defeating Aaron Pryor Jr. in a contest where Rodrigurez dislocated his shoulder in the second round and managed to win the ten round decision.

Traietti is a former Iraq war veteran and is as tough as they come. He has fought mostly in New England his entire career, was coming off of two wins this year prior to his showdown with “La Bomba.”

“I did felt like I hurt him to the body and I was surprised that he did not go down. It was a very good shot. After he took it and the round had ended, I thought he was going to be able to come out of the corner for round three and continue, but I guess I broke something. He is a tough guy and a veteran, he has been in wars. I really feel like if he really wasn’t hurt, he would have definitely come out for the next round. I think it was an excellent decision for their corner to stop the fight, because I was coming out with sugar as the fight went on. The first couple of rounds, my trainer (Ronnie Shields) told me to work off my jab and as the fight went on, we would try and work on different things. I was trying to stay focused and fight from the outside and I was able to do that today.”

When asked if he felt he deserves a world title shot now that he is sanctioned by all four major organizations, Rodriguez said, “I feel like I am in line right now to fight one of the top ten guys, and my trainer feels like I will be ready to fight for a world title in the next couple of fights, and with all of the experience he has, I certainly believe him.” – Scott Ploof

Lamonakis Decisions Woodard

Female heavyweights Sonya Lamonakis and Tiffany Woodard put on a very entertaining fight for the crowd in attendance. Lamonakis out-landed Woodard throughout in a slug fest to score the six round majority decision. Scores of the bout were 59-55 and 58-56 for Lamonakis, and 57-57 even.

Both fighters were swinging for the fences throughout the contest as it was a close fight with much more offense than defense. With the victory, Lamonakis (6-0, 1 KO) kept her undefeated record intact, while Woodard (4-5-1, 3 KOs) falls to below .500 with the loss. – Daniel Mercurio

Kielczewski Defeats Lester

Junior lightweight Ryan Kielczewski (11-0, 2 KOs), also known as the “Polish Prince,” remained unbeaten by relentlessly beating Detroit native James Lester (9-6, 4 KOs) en route to an eight round unanimous decision. Scores of the bout in favor of Kielczewski were 79-70 twice and 80-69.

In round two the fighters exchanged volatile hooks and tight jabs. Kielczewski hit Lester square in the nose at the end the round, which brought the crowd to its feet.

Then, midway into the third, the explosion: Kielczewski swung literally for thirty seconds straight, backing Lester into a corner and causing him to sway his head in circles to dodge most of the punches.

At first it worked for Lester, as he seemed to know every swing that was coming, until the fourth, when the Polish Prince backed him into that same corner and landed solid uppercuts.

Kielczewski seemed to be hitting a punching bag for the first half of the fight, as Lester didn’t seem to flinch at the plethora of punches he was taking.

Finally, in the sixth, Lester willingly fell to one knee, returned to his feet, and then kneeled down once again. By the seventh, Lester was on one knee for a third time, when referee Michael Marvell told him the next one would be his last.

Kielczewski then attacked Lester’s body, pushing him into the corner for a third time, as the eighth round was another Kielczewski-dominated round, sealing his eleventh career victory. Lester hung on a thread throughout the night, and a tough one at that, though it wasn’t enough, as Kielczewski took home the victory. – Daniel Mercurio

Medina and Former World Champion Alcine Battle to Draw

Former WBA light middleweight champion, Quebec’s Joachim Alcine (32-2-1, 19 KOs), coming off of a 13 month layoff following his 2010 loss to Alfredo Angulo, battled Quincy, MA’s native Jose Medina (14-9-3, 6 KOs) to a eight round draw. Scores of the bout were 78-75 for Alcine, 78-74 for Medina and 76-76 even. For Medina this has to be the biggest draw of his professional career, while Alcine cited ring rust as the reason for the decision.

Alcine began in the first round landing his jab and working to find his distance on Medina, however neither fighter did much in the opening round.

Medina began to press the action in round two and never looked back throughout the entire fight as he constantly kept the pressure on Alcine. Afterwards Medina said to the media, “Knowing that he has been around the game for a while, and knowing that he is a former world champion, being the younger fighter I knew that I had to keep the pressure on him and that is what I was able to do.”

As Alcine continued to fire punches, Medina was right there standing toe to toe with his adversary as they traded hooks and straights to the body and head, each countering the other, as if it were a chess match.

It appeared initially as though Alcine was standing by waiting for the right opportunity to look for the knockout, but the opportunity did not come until the fourth round. Alcine landed a huge overhand right hook on Medina that had him stunned against the ropes and almost on the canvas, however Medina was able to recover quickly and clinch Alcine in order to buy some time to regain his footing. When asked if he was hurt in the fourth round, Medina said, “It kind of shook me a little bit. I was able to recover quickly. That is why we get in sparring situations to learn how to recover from taking a punch and I felt that I recovered pretty well.”

Since Alcine was unable to capitalize on that opportunity in round four, he did not get another chance in the fight to land a punch like that on the pressuring Medina. The Quincy, MA native Medina continued to press the action even into the later rounds of the fight.

Alcine was technical in his approach to battling Medina. Alcine showed signs that his power was still there as he landed solid hard body shots on Medina and had him backed into the ropes several times during the bout as well.
In the final rounds of the fight, Alcine continued to look for that one punch knockout as he just wasn’t firing as many punches or was nearly as active as Medina was. In the end, although the judges saw the fight as a draw, the crowd in attendance gave Medina a standing ovation as they had felt he had won the fight.

“I felt pretty good tonight, I thought I came out of there tonight with the slight win, although the judges saw it their way, they were doing their jobs and that’s how they saw the fight. I thought I was winning the fight and the audience felt the same way,” said Medina afterwards. “I wasn’t because he is a former world champion and he has been around for a while, so not really surprised with his amount of experience. I had to put the pressure on him and throw him off his game and I felt that I was able to do that tonight.”

When asked if he was surprised by the draw, Alcine said to the media, “I think I maybe lost three rounds in that fight and you know like the judges and I have a different view of how the fight went down. I felt that I won this fight and the judges thought otherwise. I never thought that the fight should be 76-76. If it was 77-75 in my favor, I could see that being the correct decision, but not 76-76 when I felt that I won because I only felt like I lost two maybe three rounds total. If I would have had my full time to prepare for this fight, because I took the fight on five weeks notice, I would have had a much better showing than I did tonight. I did not have enough time to work on all of the things that I wanted to prior to this fight.”

“I connected one time cleanly on Medina and I had him hurt but he held onto me and I could not capitalize. If I had more time to prepare for this fight, I would have stopped him. If I had connected with my real timing, I would have knocked him out,” said Alcine.

Alcine continued by saying, “For my first fight back in 13 months, I would grade myself as a 4 out of 10’ because I felt rusty and I did feel like I was throwing my punches like I am used to. I know what I can do in the ring and I just didn’t feel it tonight. If I fought as a 7 out of 10, I would have knocked him out. I am not happy about the decision tonight, but we will be going to go right back into the gym, and I am going to let my management team and my promoters decide my next move.” – Scott Ploof

Rosa Decisions Nichol

The third fight of the night began with a quiet crowd and by the end they were standing on their feet as Luis Rosa (8-0, 5 KOs) unanimously defeated Colorado native Shawn Nichol (5-6, 5 KOs) in a six round super bantamweight matchup. All three judges scored the bout 59-55 for Rosa. The 122 pound fighters opened up with some likewise feathery blows, remaining evenly matched through three rounds. Rosa landed a late punch to the side of Nichol’s face while referee Michael Marvell broke the two combatants up, drawing little response from Nichol.

Rosa’s speed and power proved too much for Nichol’s calming technical precision, as he broke out with a right hook after right hook in the fifth round. Nichols retaliated in the sixth with quick jabs, but a ferocious exchange of fists as the final round closed led the judges to favor Rosa as he kept his perfect record intact. – Daniel Mercurio

Price Defeats Rabotte

The price was right for Louisiana’s undefeated heavyweight prospect, Kelvin Price (11-0, 6 KOs) as he picked apart his opponent, Joseph Rabotte (11-17-1, 3 KOs) over six rounds to score a shutout on all three judges’ score cards. Scores in favor of Price were 60-54 twice and 60-55. Price dominated the contest with his left jab and powerful combinations that gave Rabotte no chance in the contest. Rabotte was completely on the defense throughout the fight rarely landing a shot on Price, who controlled the bout from beginning to end. – Scott Ploof

Duluc Decisions Garcia

Junior welterweight Gabriel Duluc (2-0, 1 KO) came out firing in the opening contest against his opponent Noel Garcia (2-11-1, 1 KO). Duluc’s go-to weapon was an immense right overhand that flew wildly but continuously ended up on the top of Garcia’s head. Garcia, desperately fighting for the dignity of his dismal record, teetered around the ring like a bowling pin that just wouldn’t fall. Duluc’s dominance, and bowling ball of a right overhand, sent Garcia into a daze for most of the fight and gave the undefeated Dorchester native the (40-36) shutout victory. – Daniel Mercurio